Cold frames can enhance your gardening experience. Cold frames can be used to extend your gardening season almost year round in most parts of the country, with just a little extra work.

Cold frame uses

Cold frames can be used for starting plants in the spring, “hardening off” plants slowly, shading plants during the summer, staring heat sensitive plants for fall gardens, and extending growing seasons into the late fall, or even throughout winter with a heat source. Building a cold frame is not rocket science. If you can build a box, you have the skill to build a cold frame!

Building a cold frame

This simple plan works very well, and can be adopted to different types of dimensional lumber easily with just a few changes. The depth from front to back and from side to side should be considered. If you put the frame against a wall, and you cannot reach the middle of the area from the front and sides, the space in the center will be wasted.

For our purposes, a  4′ x 4′  bed will do nicely. You can adjust this to suit your space and needs.

Material list:

• 3-8′ long 2″x!2″ treated boards (Sides and ends)
• 3-10′ long 2″x2″ treated boards (Door frame and standards)
• 2-10′ long screen mold strips painted, or synthetic (Door frame)
• Clear roll plastic (For top)
• Shade cloth (For top)
• Box of 2 3/4 galvanized wood screws
• 1 box of small wire nails with heads

Constructing the cold frame

• Cut one of the 8′ 2×12 pieces in half.
• Cut one of these halves diagonally from corner to corner.
• Cut the other two boards in half.

Assembly

• Screw 4 of the rectangular boards together creating a box.
• Screw the remaining 3 pieces together matching the box. This should be done so that the back board, that is, the rectangular board, is inside the 2 diagonal boards, flush with the tall end.
• Place the 3 piece portion on top of the box in matching position.
• Measure from the bottom to the top at the highest point, and cut 2 uprights at that length (it should be about 23″) screw these inside the highest corners.
• Measure the lowest point (it should be about 11.5″) and cut uprights to that length, and fasten to the inside corners. This should give you a box 2 boards high at the back, 1 board high at the front, and the sides should slope from 2 boards to one board.
• Measure the top, and cut the remaining 2″x2″ material to create a frame that will fit the outside of the box.
• Fasten the 2″x2″ together to make a square, and check fit.
• Roll plastic or shade cloth over the frame, leaving extra to roll around the frame to the inside, and cut to size.
• Cut screen mold to size, and tack it in place to hold the cover in place.

Set the cold frame in place, do any ground preparation that is needed, add soil amendments, and start planting! You can use the shade cover when needed, and the plastic when it gets cold. If you have never used a cold frame before, you will want to watch the temperature , and prop it open when the mercury gets high.

Springtime will soon be upon us in my part of the world, so it is time to start thinking about your garden. I already see an erratic array of gardeners buzzing around like June  bugs on a summer night here in my area. We have a very strong and vibrant “Master Gardner” program in the area, and I noticed a marque announcing  the latest garden event while I was out and about.

Yes it is time to start thinking about your garden! Your FALL garden. I know all you avid aficionados of the agricultural arts are already done with your planning for the spring, but it is never too early to think about the next season.

Fall Garden

In our area, we have a pretty long growing season, broken by a short period of time when it is almost too hot to even be outdoors. During that period of time, if you already have a plan in place, you can begin to implement your autumn garden program.

Fall gardening

You will have to think backwards from the way you think about garden planning in spring, substituting your average last frost dates, with average first frost dates, so that you begin planting early enough to get your crops harvested before the first killing frost.

Advantages to fall gardening:

• It is cool in the fall, well, sometimes.
• Insects are less of a problem.
• It extends your growing season, and your production.
• It’s just nice to be outdoors when the leaves are falling!

With just a little creative thinking, you can have almost any cole crop (I like kale, but you can use whatever you like, from cabbage to cole rabbi) growing late into the season, lettuce, and a wide variety of others such as pac choi, just think outside the box.

Extending the fall garden season

Cold frames

The fall garden growing season can be extended easily, and very simply by the addition of a cold frame or two. These can be built with simple materials like landscape timbers or treated wood, or some other material that does not rot easily in contact with the soil. Build them with an angle, with the lower part, or the front of the bed facing the south. You can be as simple, or as advanced as you like with the design. See also: Building A Simple Cold Frame

The frame can be used as a shade box to protect tender plants from the summer heat by adding a cover of 50% shade cloth, and as a greenhouse like environment to protect plants from the cold, by adding a cover of clear plastic. This will allow you to start your fall garden earlier, and keep it going latter.

These same cold frames can be used to enhance and speed up your spring garden as well, by providing the opportunity to start plants earlier. You can also use them for “hardening off” tender plants, and staggering plantings.

If you want to really enhance your fall gardening, you could even add a green house, but cold frames will do for most situations.

If you don’t garden in the fall already, give it a try. Fall gardening has many advantages, and your fall garden may just extend your vegetable production throughout the entire year. You might just have a fresh garden salad from your own garden on your Christmas dinner table!